Cafe. Yarn. Friends

 

Special Edition Newsletter

November 2007 - November 2008

 

A YEAR IN REVIEW

 

It started with a party. A much larger party than we could have expected and
The Purple Purl Love has just continued to grow! OH WHAT A YEAR!

Community and Charity Events :

We kicked off our dedication to charitable events with a Food Drive on our opening night which was a wonderful success. Our Launch Party Food Drive resulted in a donation of $113 cash and a pick-up truck full of non-perishable food items for the Toronto Daily Bread Food Bank! We intend to continue on with the tradition of a food drive each year on our anniversary... because we think it is a good thing!

Leslieville's Holiday Wanderlust evening was a fun filled time and we are pleased to participating again this year which will be Thursday, November 27th, 6-10pm. It is a wonderful open house type of event where the hot chocolate flows and the neighbourhood people come by to see all the fun that each participating shop has to offer! Last year's Holiday Wanderlust was a definite treat.

Our World Wide Knit In Public Day charity knitting in the park event was a blast! We raised funds for 5 different charities by knitting up different coloured ribbons on a lovely summer day in Leslie Grove park... just a couple of doors down from our shop! 2009 WWKIP day falls on June 13th!

In October we raised $125 for World Wildlife Foundation Canada during the Tiger Dress Unveiling! Thanks for the donations! The wild and wonderful evening was a roaring (ha ha) success and a great climatic moment in the saga of the Tiger Dress. Pictures are still available here if you would like to have a peek!

Donations of stash busting yarn, needles and patterns have poured in over the year for our varied and numerous school and charity programs that support knitting, crochet and other fibre arts! Many students, seniors, and people in need have benefited from all the generous donations that you have provided! Several heartwarming stories have trickled back to us of gratefulness, and knitting clubs formed.

A Dress or Two: wedding, tiger

Melinda's quest to crochet her wedding dress was a wonder saga from January to August! It was such an honour to be a part of Melinda and Nick's big day and to see a wonderful heirloom project grow stitch by stitch and shell by shell. Beautiful work Melinda...not only did that dress look fabulous... you are an inspiration and a pillar of determination and perseverence!

And who can overlook the amazing hoopla that was the Tiger Dress unveiling? What started out as a jaw dropping flip through a rather dated and entertaining knitwear book... soon turned into a full fledged obsession and riotous amount of fun! With a challenge being accepted. Yarn provided. Casting-on The Tiger Dress is definately a critical chapter of The Purple Purl's history.

Cafe Trials & Successes

It took several months longer than expected, but our cafe opened officially on February 5th. We still have the same great coffee, the same great selection of teas and the goodies just keep getting better and better.

Frolics and Fairs

2008 Knitter's Frolic at the Japanese Cultural Centre was a great success in spite of a very inconvenient TTC strike! It was our first show ever and your support has encouraged us to be back next year... April 25, 2009! A big thanks to the The Downtown Knit Collective for their hard work and initiative to bring so many fibre enthusiasts together for one fun filled day!

The 2008 Kitchener-Waterloo Knitter's Fair was a tremendous day as well. It never fails to amaze us how much fun gathering an immense number of knitters/stitchers in one relatively small area will produce! Our first experience at the Kitchener-Waterloo Knitter's Fair was an absolute riot! With this year's expansion of the show to include the Ballroom as well as Marshall hall at the Bingeman Conference Center, it was a spacious and enjoyable show! So many new vendors have made this a must see show! And boy did we have fun. We are already registered to head back there again for September 12, 2009!

Flood

Oh, the horror, Oh the absolute amazing show of friendship. When in need our truly spectacular community of stitchers pitched in and turned what could have been an fatal disaster to our shop into a story of amazing rallying and support! It is so heartwarming to be surrounded by people who fearlessly joined in to help.

Monkeys and Comic Strips

Mee Monkey Artist Debra-Anne Barnes created our treasured and wonderful store mascot Purl. And since then Purl has travelled the world over and presided over all of our special events! Her Adventure of Purl section of the regular newsletter is a bit of fun.... but her very own comic series is something to behold! Lise is the artistic genius behind The Adventure of Purl comics. Each issue captures the adventures with so much humour, they are a joy to peruse over and over again in our purl of a shop.

Knitty Round Tables

Knitty Yarn Round Table events have been a serious amount of fun! A plethora of yarn tastings have occurred in our purl of a shop and by the sheer volume of repeat yarn tasters it would seem that it is one of the fav knitting events that Toronto has to offer! More are coming... so keep an eye on out in the December Newsletter for the next round of dates!

Stitch Nights Outta Control

Our Tuesday Evening Stitch-ins are still a favourite evening for us! We love seeing all of you every week (or any frequency that you can make it) The conversations are varied and fabulous.

Some highlights

• Miko's Story Times... both Knitting Wildlife and Jenny Kee (of course)
• Late Tuesday evening yarn deliveries... and the frenzied discovering of things new and exciting ...thank you for your patience while we frantically entered items into the system in order for you to fulfill your need for instant obtaining of favoured colourways! we know it is hard to wait!
• Finished objects abound with cheers and victory dances
• Rousing rendition(s) of things you never expect to hear at the yarn shop
• First Steps, incomparable cuteness, hugs, kisses and playfulness abound with the many treasured Purple Purly Babies
• Birthday celebrations, important announcements, moments of comfort, and excitement
• Molten Brownies, S'more Squares, Oatmeal Date cookie sandwiches, lattes, teas, iced and hot...mmmmmm
• field trips
  • The book launch of Things I Learned From Knitting whether I wanted to or not--by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee... entertaining as always...and a canadian band to open as well? very cool!
  • Travelling enmasse to the Rogers Centre (which will always be the Sky Dome) Stitch 'N Pitch 2008 was a great time. Our Purly crew was about 40 people strong and here were a great many pictures taken of Purl with various people all evening
• The out break of a Monty Python sing-a-long (at least once)
• And of course... Our New Year's Day Pyjama Party Stitch-In was such a ridiculously good time, we are doing it again! (12-5) It was such a nice afternoon, all relaxed, all comfy and in good spirits to kick off the New Year in stitches!

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What is next?

First and foremost we are so pleased to offer you our Purly Points Program starting November 15th (our 1st anniversary)! Earn points on all your fibre related purchases to redeem for credit at the Purple Purl. We even have handy dandy membership cards! You will want to bookmark our Purly Points Page for all the details and keep checking back for Purly Point Specials all year long!

In conjunction with our Purly Points Program we will also be holding monthly Customer Appreciation Giveaways! Flashing your Purly Points card will lead to free stuff... Starting December 15th we will be drawing for monthly giveaways to our customers! Every $20 pre-tax you spend with us each month will earn you a ballot in the current months' prize package. Winners will be drawn on the 15th of each month... like a mini-month-iversary celebration! Winners will be contacted by phone and posted in each newsletter! So sign up as soon as you can to take advantage of every opportunity to rack up ballots!

Be sure to keep your email addresses up-to-date for our newsletter... the possibilities are endless as to how much fun we can have with our Purly Point Program!

Further

We have big plans for our little Purl of a shop and we look forward to growing with you.

Look for the website to undergo some improvements. We hope to increase our content online over the next year to provide helpful features like product information, a photo gallery so that you can keep up to date with the Purple Purl Happenings in full colour! Plus we are hoping to make a move towards a mail-order component to our Purl of a shop as well!

And of course we will continue to take advantage of every opportunity to have fun as always. Kooky ideas, enthusiastic silliness, heartfelt involvement, and open doors. Our first newsletter stated:

Cafe... Yarn... Friends...

That about sums us up. Our vision is to create a space that will provide a place for stitchers of all persuasions to come and enjoy fantastic fibre, a nice cuppa, and a friendly and welcoming environment in the heart of Toronto's Leslieville community.  Come for a few minutes or come park yourself with your stitchery for a good long while!  We look forward to seeing what you are creating. 

and we hope you feel that we are achieving this vision. We love how quickly you have all become an important part of our everyday life!

There are just sooo many people to thank for making this dream come true. You people with absolutely unending generosity know who you are, but it needs to be said that this shop is just not a possibility without the community that has become the absolute heart of The Purple Purl. Thank you. To our Customers, Friends, Family, Suppliers: your constant support, involvement, presence and thoughtfulness overwhelms us and we are grateful!

 

Happy Stitching!

Jennifer & Miko

 

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